Health care: It’s time for technology | Hacker News Reader

Health care: It’s time for technology

entrepreneur.venturebeat.com

3 pointsbaran4 comments

To me this article shows the problem and not the solution. Think about how he starts the article. He says...

"Here’s a sobering thought: I can walk into any local car dealership and buy a $30,000 piece of merchandise, leaving nothing behind but my signature — but if I show up that same day at the hospital, unconscious after a collision in my new car, there’s not a soul in that emergency room who will know what medications I’m taking, what allergies I have or where my living will is stored."

But then he goes on to list a bunch of technologies that don't fix that problem (sorry, if you come in unconscious from a car accident the doctor isn't going to be able to pull up your HealthVault account in the Emergency Room). The problem with much of the technology currently being put out there is they aren't looking at the problem and tailoring a solution to it. Instead they focus on theoretical goals ("Health Care needs Social Media") and no one ends up using their products.

The truth is Digital Health Care has a lot of hurdles to over come but it's the stuff that can't be fixed with a fancy website like getting hospitals wired, creating common formats that medical machines can use to deliver info and establishing a global identity system so even if you're unconscious you can be treated properly. All these things require hard work and collaboration not just slapping technology together on the web.

Very true. Healthcare is at a point where everyone thinks "Oh if we just added this..., healthcare would be so much better." This is flawed thinking which leads to over-spending and products which leave something to be desired.

The only constants are the patients and the physician, therefore technology should be built around that relationship.

Technology isn't the silver bullet of health care.

Let's first allocated more time for each patient visit, support long-lasting patient-doctor relationships that give some perspective to the patient's health outside the imminent symptoms, and treating patients as complete psycho-physical beings instead of merely malfunctioning organisms.

Then we can discuss and welcome technology.

Don't disagree with that assertion, but we have to realize that doctors need technology too. In an age where imaging, more molecular and genetic oriented diagnostics, etc are going to play a more important role, you need the tech in place, otherwise you're not going to be able to catch up, both from the provider side and the patient side.

At our health system just the simple fact that every entry recorded into the EMR system is available to others, who might not be in the same building makes the whole process so much more efficient. Now if I could access those records equally easily (which is where HealthVault etc come up, then we're in even better shape)

We should all carry ID's with our medical records and diagnostic profile in them in some form or other. That's also very useful tech and the kind that EMT's or triage nurses can leveage in emergencies.

There's a lot that's wrong with healthcare, but tech is going to be part of the mid to long term solution. In the near term there are systemic issues to be solved, at least in this country

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